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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Happy 1st Blogiversary!

It is hard to believe that a year has already passed since I started this family history blog. In the past year, I have somehow managed to write a new post every two days on average and there have been more than 5,000 visits to the blog. Blog visitors have been from about 35 different countries literally around the world, with the majority of visitors from just about all provinces in Canada, almost all states in the continental USA, and across the United Kingdom.

I started the blog based on urgings that I listened to through genealogy podcasts during my daily work commute, particularly Lisa Louise Cooke of the Genealogy Gems podcast and Drew Smith and George G. Morgan of The Genealogy Guys podcast. One year ago, I had hit the threshold of 10,000 names in my family tree database and thought the blog would be a useful and easy way to share the stories from the family histories of both mine and my wife Ellen's roots. I shared the link to the blog with about twenty-five family members from both our families, with the hope that they didn't think it was too stupid an idea.

It would be an understatement to say I am amazed by the response the blog has received! I have connected with cousins, previously unknown, from both our families. Ellen's family has a long and rich history in Ontario, Canada as well the New England states so that is the primary base for her cousin connections. My cousin connections are more international, reflecting different twentieth century emigration points from the mothership of Scotland. My 'new' cousin connections can be found in Australia, Finland, Luxembourg, Scotland (of course), and 'around the corner' from my house, in Pickering, Ontario.

It's been a great year with times of seemingly unlimited stories to share mixed with dry spells during which I couldn't fathom what I might be able to blog about next. Those dry spells tended to be the catalysts for more research to seek out the next topic or story. I can only hope that the next year will provide as much benefit to me!